1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for recovering an .alpha.-amino acid, and more particularly to a process for separating and recovering an .alpha.-amino acid from an aqueous solution containing an .alpha.-amino acid and its corresponding .alpha.-amino acid amide.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Upon biochemical asymmetric hydrolysis, a D, L-.alpha.-amino acid amide gives an L-.alpha.-amino acid and a D-.alpha.-amino acid amide. This process is known as one kind of optical resolution for D, L-.alpha.-amino acids. However, there have been no industrial process for separating and recovering an L-.alpha.-amino acid from the hydrolyzate.
The present inventors carried out extensive studies on an industrial process for separating and recovering an L-.alpha.-amino acid from a solution containing an L-.alpha.-amino acid and a D-.alpha.-amino acid amide which is obtained by biochemical hydrolysis of a D, L-.alpha.-amino acid amide. As the result, it was found that it is possible to selectively separate and recover an L-.alpha.-amino acid alone by performing ion-exchange electrodialysis in the presence of ammonia. The present invention was completed based on this finding.